Categories

Mayor Lutfur attempts to bend the truth. Again.

Mayor Lutfur (or his media advisors) seems to be tinkering with the public record of his Administration again. This time he has been caught out being economical with the truth on Twitter.

Below is a screenshot of a tweet he sent from the @MayorLutfur account yesterday 18th November in response to comments made by Cllr. Peter Golds, leader of the Tower Hamlets Conservative Group, on the Daily Politics show.

The Mayor says “I have never stood for homophobia and never will.”

Cllr. Peter Golds

That may be so, but the contents of the letter reproduced below seems to indicate that Mayor Lutfur has certainly stood by as homophobic, racist and anti-Semitic comments have been made.

Which is pretty much the same thing as standing for it.

Below is a letter written by Cllr. Golds (left) in response to Mayor Rahman in which he details occasions when homophobic comments have been made by the Mayor’s supporters in the presence of the Mayor and the Mayor has stood by and done nothing.

Below is the full text of the letter from Cllr. Golds to Mayor Lutfur.

Lutfur Rahman
Executive Mayor
London Borough of Town Hamlets
Mulberry Place
E14 2BG

Sent via Internal mail to Town Hall and copy posted to Home address
November 18th 2014

Dear Mr. Rahman

Yesterday following my appearance on the Dally Politics you tweeted that I had slandered you and that you have never stood for homophobia and never will. I did not say that.

This is untrue, as had you heard the programme you would have known.

I was extremely careful as to what I said. I stated that supporters of Tower Hamlets First regularly Indulge in racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic abuse.

I reiterate, as I have said publicly, I have never heard you indulge in such abuse personally. That you have done nothing when your colleagues and supporters do Is a different matter. You cannot deny either fact as they are extremely well documented

These comments were by Shiraj Haque, one of your leading financial backers, during the first council meeting after you were elected as Mayor:

“One Mayor, one borough, he will do anything he likes”; ‘Peter [Golds], get out of the borough, you can rent one of my flats”; ”Peter are you going on a honeymoon with Jim Fitzpatrick?”; and heckling during a discussion on investment strategies, “I can give you a better rate of interest if you invest in me .

During this meeting you sat and watched this, dismissing a request to call your friend and supporter to order when asked.

At the council meeting held on February 2nd 2011 a Labour councillor was subject to a defamatory question from one of your supporters, Anna Begum, who has appeared in election literature supporting you, When the councillor rose to rebut these allegations he was greeted with cries of “unnatural acts” from your group of supporters in the gallery which was repeated continuously whilst he spoke.

At the same meeting a member of the public submitted a question regarding a Gay event in Victoria Park, when he spoke there were guffaws and strange animal noises, again coming from this easily identifiable group.

You did nothing about this, despite being present and observing it all. Indeed as the ringleader, Syed Mustak, a Tower Hamlets First Candidate in 2014, actually sent out text messages urging people to arrive at the town hall and in large numbers to “support” Mayor Rahman, which he signed off on behalf of “Mayor Lutfur Rahman”, you can scarcely be unaware of his actions…

At the Council meeting held on February 23rd 2011, I addressed the council and was greeted with shouts of “poofter”. Former Cllr. Rania Khan explained that what was actually said was actually Bengali term of affection; “kukur”, which was reported to mean ”dog”. This has also been well reported.

So it has continued down the years. You were looking at one of your supporters at a meeting who stood up and bawled at me:

“Sit down you f**** old queer”

He was photographed, witness statements were secured and the police commenced an investigation by showing his photograph to Cllr Ohid Ahmed . He has not been seen at the town hall since.

On April 17th this year, another of your supporters, Omar Sharif, on a “Lutfur for Mayor” Facebook page posted the following:

“Why can’t ww (sic) unite and kick the zionist pigs off this planet?”

A view that was prevalent between 1933-45, and cost six million lives.

Currently the “We support Lutfur Rahman” Facebook page is full of racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic comments. I attach some for you to see.

It would do a great deal for community cohesion if you were to explicitly condemn these postings, along with those of Omar Sharif and Shiraj Haque.

As I said yesterday your supporters include some very unsavoury people with extremely offensive views,

Now is your chance to do something about it.

I should also add that the LGBT Community is extremely diverse. However, I can say that they are as resistant to the ex SWP/Trotskyite polemic of Colin Wilson, which brings a whole new dimension to boredom, as the population as a whole are to the similar stale rhetoric of his close associates John Rees and Lindsey German.

Your sincerely,

Councillor Peter Golds

[wpdm_file id=35]

Will be interesting to see if Mayor Lutfur, whose Tower Hamlets First party claims to represent all in the borough, does condemn the postings and the comments by his supporters. Don’t hold your breath.